Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline, irreversible memory loss, disorientation, and language impairment. Postmortem examination of AD brain sections reveals abundant senile plaques (SPs) composed of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides and numerous neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) formed by filaments of highly phosphorylated tau proteins (for recent reviews and additional citations see Ginsberg, S. D., et al., “Molecular Pathology of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders,” in Cerebral Cortex: Neurodegenerative and Age-related Changes in Structure and Function of Cerebral Cortex, Kluwer Academic/Plenum, NY (1999), pp. 603-654; Vogelsberg-Ragaglia, V., et al., “Cell Biology of Tau and Cytoskeletal Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease,” Alzheimer's Disease, Lippincot, Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, Pa. (1999), pp. 359-372).
Amyloidosis is a condition characterized by the accumulation of various insoluble, fibrillar proteins in the tissues of a patient. An amyloid deposit is formed by the aggregation of amyloid proteins, followed by the further combination of aggregates and/or amyloid proteins. Formation and accumulation of aggregates of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides in the brain are critical factors in the development and progression of AD.
In addition to the role of amyloid deposits in Alzheimer's disease, the presence of amyloid deposits has been shown in diseases such as Mediterranean fever, Muckle-Wells syndrome, idiopathic myeloma, amyloid polyneuropathy, amyloid cardiomyopathy, systemic senile amyloidosis, amyloid polyneuropathy, hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis, Down's syndrome, Scrapie, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, Kuru, Gerstamnn-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome, medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, Isolated atrial amyloid, β2-microglobulin amyloid in dialysis patients, inclusion body myositis, β2-amyloid deposits in muscle wasting disease, and Islets of Langerhans diabetes Type II insulinoma.
The fibrillar aggregates of amyloid peptides, Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42, are major metabolic peptides derived from amyloid precursor protein found in senile plaques and cerebrovascular amyloid deposits in AD patients (Xia, W., et al., J. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97:9299-9304 (2000)). Prevention and reversal of Aβ plaque formation are being targeted as a treatment for this disease (Selkoe, D., J. JAMA 283:1615-1617 (2000); Wolfe, M. S., et al., J. Med. Chem. 41:6-9 (1998); Skovronsky, D. M., and Lee, V. M., Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 21:161-163 (2000)).
Familial AD (FAD) is caused by multiple mutations in the A precursor protein (APP), presenilin 1 (PS1) and presenilin 2 (PS2) genes (Ginsberg, S. D., et al., “Molecular Pathology of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders,” in Cerebral Cortex: Neurodegenerative and Age-related Changes in Structure and Function of Cerebral Cortex, Kluwer Academic/Plenum, NY (1999), pp. 603-654; Vogelsberg-Ragaglia, V., et al., “Cell Biology of Tau and Cytoskeletal Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease,” Alzheimer's Disease, Lippincot, Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, Pa. (1999), pp. 359-372).
While the exact mechanisms underlying AD are not fully understood, all pathogenic FAD mutations studied thus far increase production of the more amyloidogenic 42-43 amino-acid long form of the Aβ peptide. Thus, at least in FAD, dysregulation of Aβ production appears to be sufficient to induce a cascade of events leading to neurodegeneration. Indeed, the amyloid cascade hypothesis suggests that formation of extracellular fibrillar Aβ aggregates in the brain may be a pivotal event in AD pathogenesis (Selkoe, D. J., “Biology of β-amyloid Precursor Protein and the Mechanism of Alzheimer's Disease,” Alzheimer's Disease, Lippincot Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, Pa. (1999), pp. 293-310; Selkoe, D. J., J. Am. Med. Assoc. 283:1615-1617 (2000); Naslund, J., et al., J. Am. Med. Assoc. 283:1571-1577 (2000); Golde, T. E., et al., Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1502:172-187 (2000)).
Various approaches in trying to inhibit the production and reduce the accumulation of fibrillar Aβ in the brain are currently being evaluated as potential therapies for AD (Skovronsky, D. M. and Lee, V. M., Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 21:161-163 (2000); Vassar, R., et al., Science 286:735-741 (1999); Wolfe, M. S., et al., J. Med. Chem. 41:6-9 (1998); Moore, C. L., et al., J. Med. Chem. 43:3434-3442 (2000); Findeis, M. A., Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1502:76-84 (2000); Kuner, P., Bohrmann, et al., J. Biol. Chem. 275:1673-1678 (2000)). It is therefore of interest to develop ligands that specifically bind fibrillar Aβ aggregates. Since extracellular SPs are accessible targets, these new ligands could be used as in vivo diagnostic tools and as probes to visualize the progressive deposition of Aβ in studies of AD amyloidogenesis in living patients.
To this end, several interesting approaches for developing fibrillar Aβ aggregate-specific ligands have been reported (Ashburn, T. T., et al., Chem. Biol. 3:351-358 (1996); Han, G., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 118:4506-4507 (1996); Klunk, W. E., et al., Biol. Psychiatry 35:627 (1994); Klunk, W. E., et al., Neurobiol. Aging 16:541-548 (1995); Klunk, W. E., et al., Society for Neuroscience Abstract 23:1638 (1997); Mathis, C. A., et al., Proc. XIIth Intl. Symp. Radiopharm. Chem., Uppsala, Sweden:94-95 (1997); Lorenzo, A. and Yankner, B. A., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 91:12243-12247 (1994); Zhen, W., et al., J. Med. Chem. 42:2805-2815 (1999)). The most attractive approach is based on highly conjugated chrysamine-G (CG) and Congo red (CR), and the latter has been used for fluorescent staining of SPs and NFTs in postmortem AD brain sections (Ashburn, T. T., et al., Chem. Biol. 3:351-358 (1996); Klunk, W. E., et al., J. Histochem. Cytochem. 37:1273-1281 (1989)). The inhibition constants (Ki) for binding to fibrillar Aβ aggregates of CR, CG, and 3′-bromo- and 3′-iodo derivatives of CG are 2,800, 370, 300 and 250 nM, respectively (Mathis, C. A., et al., Proc. XIIth Intl. Symp. Radiopharm. Chem., Uppsala, Sweden:94-95 (1997)). These compounds have been shown to bind selectively to Aβ (1-40) peptide aggregates in vitro as well as to fibrillar Aβ deposits in AD brain sections (Mathis, C. A., et al., Proc. XIIth Intl. Symp. Radiopharm. Chem., Uppsala, Sweden:94-95 (1997)).
There are several potential benefits of imaging Aβ aggregates in the brain. The imaging technique will improve diagnosis by identifying potential patients with excess Aβ plaques in the brain; therefore, they may be likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. It will also be useful to monitor the progression of the disease. When anti-plaque drug treatments become available, imaging Aβ plaques in the brain may provide an essential tool for monitoring treatment. Thus, a simple, noninvasive method for detecting and quantitating amyloid deposits in a patient has been eagerly sought. Presently, detection of amyloid deposits involves histological analysis of biopsy or autopsy materials. Both methods have drawbacks. For example, an autopsy can only be used for a postmortem diagnosis.
The direct imaging of amyloid deposits in vivo is difficult, as the deposits have many of the same physical properties (e.g., density and water content) as normal tissues. Attempts to image amyloid deposits using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computer-assisted tomography (CAT) have been disappointing and have detected amyloid deposits only under certain favorable conditions. In addition, efforts to label amyloid deposits with antibodies, serum amyloid P protein, or other probe molecules have provided some selectivity on the periphery of tissues, but have provided for poor imaging of tissue interiors.
Potential ligands for detecting Aβ aggregates in the living brain must cross the intact blood-brain barrier. Thus brain uptake can be improved by using ligands with relatively smaller molecular size (compared to Congo Red) and increased lipophilicity. Highly conjugated thioflavins (S and T) are commonly used as dyes for staining the Aβ aggregates in the AD brain (Elhaddaoui, A., et al., Biospectroscopy 1:351-356 (1995)).
A highly lipophilic tracer, [18F]FDDNP, for binding both tangles (mainly composed of hyperphosphorylated tau protein) and plaques (containing Aβ protein aggregates) has been reported. (Shoghi-Jadid K, et al., Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2002; 10:24-35). Using positron-emission tomography (PET), it was reported that this tracer specifically labeled deposits of plaques and tangles in nine AD patients and seven comparison subjects. (Nordberg A. Lancet Neurol. 2004; 3:519-27). Using a novel pharmacokinetic analysis procedure called the relative residence time of the brain region of interest versus the pons, differences between AD patients and comparison subjects were demonstrated. The relative residence time was significantly higher in AD patients. This is further complicated by an intriguing finding that FDDNP competes with some NSAIDs for binding to Aβ fibrils in vitro and to Aβ plaques ex vivo (Agdeppa E D, et al. 2001; Agdeppa E D, et al., Neuroscience. 2003; 117:723-30).
Imaging β-amyloid in the brain of AD patients by using a benzothiazole aniline derivative, [11C]6-OH-BTA-1 (also referred to as [11C]PIB), was recently reported. (Mathis C A, et al., Curr Pharm Des. 2004; 10:1469-92; Mathis C A, et al., Arch. Neurol. 2005, 62:196-200.). Contrary to that observed for [18F]FDDNP, [11C]6-OH-BTA-1 binds specifically to fibrillar Aβ in vivo. Patients with diagnosed mild AD showed marked retention of [11C]6-OH-BTA-1 in the cortex, known to contain large amounts of amyloid deposits in AD. In the AD patient group, [11C]6-OH-BTA-1 retention was increased most prominently in the frontal cortex. Large increases also were observed in parietal, temporal, and occipital cortices and in the striatum. [11C]6-OH-BTA-1 retention was equivalent in AD patients and comparison subjects in areas known to be relatively unaffected by amyloid deposition (such as subcortical white matter, pons, and cerebellum). Recently, another 11C labeled Aβ plaque-targeting probe, a stilbene derivative-[11C]SB-13, has been studied. In vitro binding using the [3H]SB-13 suggests that the compound showed excellent binding affinity and binding can be clearly measured in the cortical gray matter, but not in the white matter of AD cases. (Kung M-P, et al., Brain Res. 2004; 1025:89-105. There was a very low specific binding in cortical tissue homogenates of control brains. The Kd values of [3H]SB-13 in AD cortical homogenates were 2.4±0.2 nM. High binding capacity and comparable values were observed (14-45 pmol/mg protein) (Id.). As expected, in AD patients [11C]SB-13 displayed a high accumulation in the frontal cortex (presumably an area containing a high density of Aβ plaques) in mild to moderate AD patients, but not in age-matched control subjects. (Verhoeff N P, et al., Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2004; 12:584-95).
It would be useful to have a noninvasive technique for imaging and quantitating amyloid deposits in a patient. In addition, it would be useful to have compounds that inhibit the aggregation of amyloid proteins to form amyloid deposits and a method for determining a compound's ability to inhibit amyloid protein aggregation.